What We Do With The Puppies....Besides Loving Them :)

So far the puppies have been raised indoors, but as I said in an earlier post, they will be moving into their new home outdoors in another week; They will be brought in daily and soon start working on crate training and sleeping inside through the night for potty training purposes (but potty training is a little ways down the road & crate training won't start until week 4).

Mastiffs are meant to live indoors, so if you are thinking about purchasing one, please keep that in mind. They must live inside. Also, while they are young, even up to a year, they can not handle being alone for too many hours in a day. So if you are a very busy person away from the house a lot, leaving your mastiff alone and/or kenneled, this may not be the breed for you.

Interaction is important. My daughters and I interact with the puppies many hours in the day between feedings and naps. They are handled with love and care. Their paws are massaged so their used to being touched, rubbed, etc… Otherwise when they're full grown you will not be able to handle their paws for nail clipping because they’re too strong full grown to allow it. So this is a very important step while raising them and something you will have to continue to do when they are released in your care. The same with their ears. They need to be use to having them cleaned so they remain still.

We have both parents on premises and we will start showing one pup at a time to Deuce and allowing him to interact with them daily beginning at age 4 wks (under supervision of course). We did this with the last litter at and Deuce was wonderful with the puppies both interacting and playing.

We crate train the puppies between 4 - 5 wks old to make life easier on the new owners. They need to have their own "den" (crate), which offers security for them to go to when they're worn out, want to be alone, or go to for nap/bed time. Also while crate training they will not use the bathroom in their sleeping space and learn to hold it until they're let out. Upon being let out of the crate/kennel they will be taken directly outside because 99% of the time they have to go potty as soon as they step out of it, whether its been a nap or in the middle of the night after hours of sleeping. Potty training starts at this time as well. Since they will be in the house more often as they continue to grow, they will need to know outside is for pottying. I will be using training pads and a spray scent that attracts them to the pad in case they need to go while inside playing and someone isn‘t looking. Of course the goal is to completely eliminate the use of the pads and have the puppies potty trained for their new home, but realistically, they will have a basic understanding, still have accidents and it will be up to the new owner to continue to enforce what we will be teaching them.

The puppies will have a variety of toys to play with and a personal baby blanket (that will go with the pup to the new owner for his/her crate). As soon as ther muscles in their legs strength and they no longer wobble to walk, they will have plenty of play time daily with me, our three daughters and my husband. Have no doubt, these puppies will be loved, cherished and raised as if they were our own to keep. They will be well socialized and have a great disposition when its time for them to be handed over to their new owners.